As patients resume scheduling their routine medical appointments during the COVID-19 pandemic, vigilance is required to protect them from infection and to reduce the risk of potential COVID-related litigation. The following is a sample list of risk reduction strategies to ensure your patients’ safety.

As COVID-19 challenges continue, CAP highly recommends the following resources to assist with safely welcoming patients back to your medical practice.

Important Notice: Physicians should note that there is no special release, consent, or acknowledgement waiver for patients to sign that patients do not hold offices liable if patient become positive with COVID-19.

The Court of Appeal has told a health plan, in effect, “not so fast” after the plan refused to consider a surgeon’s attempt to correct an initial coding error after an alleged emergency surgery.

If Physician Assistants (PAs) — a type of advance  practice professional — are part of your practice, then  you need to know that the rules and regulations for  the supervision of PA’s were recently changed. Senate  Bill No. 697, Physician Assistants: Practice Agreements:  Supervision, was signed on October 9, 2019 and took  effect on January 1, 2020.

Physicians may be forgiven for a feeling of whiplash after emerging from an era of pain-medication permissiveness to today’s opioid vigilance. Nevertheless, practitioners must always be alert to the warning signs of a patient who is abusing the trust of the physician- patient relationship.